Page 138 of His Surrender

Another few seconds pass. He looks toward the nursery, the hallway, anywhere except me.

“I talked to my dad.”

My eyebrows lift. “About?”

He lets out a quiet breath. “Us.”

Everything inside me goes still.

I swallow hard. “You … what?”

“He figured it out.”

I blink. “Seriously?”

Dean nods. “He told me he’d never seen me look at anyone the way I looked at you.”

My stomach flips. “Oh,” I reply, completely unable to think of anything else to say.

“He wasn’t angry.” I hear the surprise still lingering in his voice. “He wasn’t disappointed or concerned about the age difference.” Dean finally looks at me. “He basically spent an hour convincing me that I’d been making this a much bigger issue than everyone else probably would.”

Emotion catches unexpectedly in my throat. Now I know how much that’s weighed on him.

All the times he pulled back in public. How often he’s worried about what people would think.

“I’ve been hiding behind that fear.” He gives my hand a gentle squeeze. “And I don’t want to anymore.”

I search his face as I try to understand exactly what he’s saying.

“I don’t want us to be a secret.”

The words steal every coherent thought from my brain.

He smiles softly. “I don’t mean I want to announce it on a billboard.”

A quiet laugh escapes me.

“Although Sawyer would probably volunteer to rent one.”

That earns him a grin.

“But …” His smile fades again, becoming something infinitely more sincere. “I don’t want to keep pretending you’re only Liana’s nanny.”

My heart feels too big for my chest.

“I don’t want to wonder if someone might see us holding hands or to stop myself from kissing you because we’re standing in Macy’s.”

My eyes widen. “You noticed.”

“I noticed.” He smiles apologetically. “I hated seeing that look on your face.”

I didn’t realize he’d seen it.

“I was trying to protect you.”

I nod my head in understanding. “I know.”

“I still want to.” He lifts our joined hands. “But protecting you shouldn’t mean pretending that I’m not crazy about you.”